One Need Not be a Chamber to be Haunted
by carrafin
Summary: Okita wonders if this is what one feels when one realises that he loves a monster.


_"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster._

_And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."_

* * *

><p>The sky is ominously pregnant with dark and menacing thunderstorm clouds when Okita is rudely woken up from his afternoon nap by a frantic Yamazaki.<p>

'Captain - there's been a mass bombing event by the extremists in the Kabuki district - everything's been blown into bits - there doesn't seem to be any survivors and the extremists are raiding the streets-'

Okita is up at record speed and makes his way into the police car, with the first division barely following behind. His usual patented nonchalance is replaced by an uncharacteristic, almost desperate sense of urgency. This should have been just another normal shift, he thinks to himself, another day of plotting to poison Hijitaka, of wrecking havoc under the poor guise of some vague justice, of lazy afternoon naps. The sound of a swerving vehicle and jarringly loud car hounds snaps Okita from his reverie.

A mass bombing in the _Kabuki_ district. _No survivors_. His knuckles tighten around the steering wheel and he slams down onto the accelerator violently. _Faster_, he thinks, _faster faster faster_ —

(When message came it was already too late.)

* * *

><p>As Okita alights from his car and steps onto the streets of Kabuki he feels a profound, almost decapitating sense of horror. A tiny part of his brain responsible for his sadistic nature thinks that this is a beautiful and terrible rendition of hell. The other parts want to ran back into the car, drive away and never come back. Beyond him is a scarlet sea baptised with blood, dismembered limbs and slick bowels scattered around like careless offerings to forsaken gods. There is rubble and debris everywhere; not a single building was left unspared. The stench of hundreds of corpses attacks his nostrils, and Okita thinks he might throw up. Behind him Yamazaki succumbs to the horror and heaves into drain.<p>

A few men on patrol run up to him.

'I don't see a single extremist,' Okita looks around. 'Where are they?'

'Captain,' a soldier salutes him with trembling hands, ashen gray face dripping with cold sweat. 'They've all been… killed by someone.'

'Killed? By whom?'

'This… this might sound ridiculous but… every single person here is dead except for this… young… young girl… in a red dress... She… she's a monster… killed… all of them...'

Okita thinks he is definitely going to throw up.

* * *

><p>A single girl sits amidst the cesspool of death and carnage, in front of what used to be Otose's Snack House, unmoving as a statue. As Okita walks closer - he isn't sure how, since his legs are as heavy as lead - he sees her cradling two corpses in her arms, one with hair that is jet black and the other a striking silver, matted with clumps of dried blood. She doesn't blink as they approach. Fresh blood drips down her hair, rivulets of dirty red travelling down the contours of her ghostly white face, almost like tears. Almost. Her face is unreadable, and in light of her heinous crime - the gory murder of close to three hundred grown men - the impassiveness is terrifying.<p>

Okita is torn between running away from her and running to her. Between escaping from this girl-creature and holding her in his arms.

(Okita wonders if this is what one feels when one realises that he loves a monster.)

Next to him, he hears Yamazaki draw in his breath shakily. '_What in the world?_'

Kagura looks up, formerly ocean blue eyes clouded with a thick layer of abject- hopelessness? hatred? despair? and her lips curl into the ghost of a smile.

'My world,' she replies with unnerving calm, 'Is dead.'

* * *

><p>I always thought that a large part of the charm Okikagu exudes is attributed to both their (comedic) propensity for violence, but I don't think Okita has ever seen Kagura in her full Yato glory (actually, glory is probably a terribly wrong word but I'm not very sure how else to convey it). Okita is frequently portrayed as the more sadistic and cruel party, but I think that Kagura - by virtue of her Yato blood - is capable of a far more alarming brutality and ferocity.<p>

I might continue this one day. Maybe. If I'm feeling particularly masochistic.


End file.
